A-Infos (en) Mexico, Cascadia Media in Cancun: Update #1

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Here's the most recent update we have recieved from the field.
Protesting certainly has a culture...and we often marvel at the
manifestations of such culture here in Cancun. Today marked the first
series of marches to the perimeter fence: one march of
students/black blockers/internationals and another of campesinos.
We attended the first. It was filled with potential, and we are eager
for tomorrow, but interactions seemed to hint at the age old conflict
between the "non-violent" and the "radical".
Orange vested know-it-alls (aka peace police) were there in
abundance. A Mayan ritual (attended by the one and only Starhawk!)
took place in the center of the traffic circle. Young, masked, punks
rushed the fence (breaking it in places)and waved flags from the top
of statues. We heard the campesino march was bigger and more
focused--which didn't surprise us. Of all the groups in Cancun, they
seem to know exactly why they are here and exactly what their
intentions are.

As is often the case in cities, the number of protesters is difficult to
calculate. To the South, a large encampment of campesinos and
students. To the North, a convergence space and indymedia center.
And all over town, various parks filled with campers, locals, music
and presentations. There is no doubt that the city is filled with
merrymaking-malcontents gearing up for the start of WTO meetings
tomorrow.

We journied into the hotel zone today to check out security. There is
an outer fence and a series of inner fences. The complicated part is
that it is approximately 4 miles from primary fence to convention
center--and the path is flanked on one side by the ocean and a lagoon
filled with crocodiles on the other.

When protesters are present, the outer fence closes and hundreds of
riot cops appear. When the protesters leave, the fence is openned
and commerce continues as usual.

Tomorrow will certainly be interesting. Rumor has it that people will
attempt to breech the fence, what happens on the other side will
remain to be seen.

Daily updates are posted on their website at
www.cascadiamedia.org. Look for video from the streets at upcoming
events.


Link: http://www.cascadiamedia.org
Source: http://www.cascadiamedia.org/news.html

Cancun Viernes, cinco de septiembre, 2003

The city of Cancun seems to be carrying on in it's divided fasion. There is
the hotel zone: teaming with tan lines, bad pop rock and more money than you
can shake a fist at; and the rest of the city: filled with workers, 2 for 1
drink deals and expensive water.
The global elite will meet at the tip of the hotel zone and the protesters are
amassing in the center of the city.
We visited the sandy beaches and the convention center today. The beaches were
every bit as beautiful and the hotels every bit as brash as the brochures
promised them to be. Three battleships patrolled the water just off shore.
The security force is a sophisticated one. It appears to be low-
profile...especially in the hotel zone. But, if you look "suspicious" they're
all over you. Newspapers claim there are over 20,000 police from various
organizations mobilized for the event. A newly leaked national security memo
to Diaro Reforma claims more than 100 undercover agents are infiltrating the
organizing process.
For now, the hotel zone remains open. People expect it to remain so until a
critical mass of protestors has arrived.
Thanks to the mayor of Cancun, all the parks and plazas in downtown will be
open to campers by Sunday. Good news for the 20-50,000 who are beginning to
arrive.
Things are certainly beginning to heat up and an air of comradery already seems
to be growing among organizers.
We'll send more soon.


CASCADIA MEDIA COLLECTIVE http://www.cascadiamedia.org/about_us.html

Cascadia Media Collective is an uncompromising group of guerrilla
journalists producing videos, audio CDs, pamphlets, and other
multimedia projects. Our goal is to not only inform people of social
injustice and environmental destruction but also to strengthen and
mobilize the community of resistance.The video department, through
its films Guerrilla Video Primer, A Year in the Streets, US Off the
Planet, Umpqua: Oregon’s Threatened Paradise, and DNC 2000,
outreaches to a wide cross section of the public without
compromising its radical viewpoints. The print department puts out
the bi-monthly paper War Time News, an unflinching account of The
Bush Reich's reign of world wide terror.

Through these projects Cascadia Media Collective provides a
healthy, vibrant alternative to the corporate/state propaganda
packaged as the nightly news. Also, our new series of spoken word
CDs will help bring suppressed political voices to the minds of people
across the country and around the planet. CMC hopes to inspire
people to come together and bring an end to the accelerating death
spiral of the techno-capitalist era and to start rekindling the dying
spark of hope for a more survivable future.

CMC Distro is Cascadia Media Collective’s distribution center
for in-house projects and other media projects which have received
limited distribution due to their radical uncompromising themes. We
are helping to secure and defend a new autonomist space in the
commercial trading system for guerrilla media which inherently
challenges that very system. The titles distributed by CMC Distro
are hard-hitting, engaging critiques of the dominant paradigm, filling
out a vital but suppressed media niche.

The CMC Newswire combines the many forms of media produced by
Cascadia Media Collective with other autonomous journalists to
create a unique compalation of radical alternative media. Stories on
the Newswire are created from CMC field reporters and internet
news gathering teams covering the U.S. to our guerrilla journalisim
comrades from all over the planet.

The Guerrilla Media Bulletin Board is CMC's attempt to create an
international web of guerrilla journalists, radical media producers,
distributors and venues interested in screening these projects.
Cascadia Media Collective feels that to effectivly confront the
corporate/state propaganda machine, it is essentail for the guerrilla
media movement to band together in a non-hirerarchial, decentralized
wave of resistance.

CMC's Link X Change is our attempt to create a multi dimensional
portal to connect many of the disasociated but vital threads in the
web of evolutionary information. Some of the topics in the Link X
Change include: Radical News sources, prisoner support resources,
radical femmenist information, real history sites, self impowerment
links, sites to connect you with people all over the world ressisting
global domination in many different forms and more.




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